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The Carpenter's Moons: A Tale From Beyond the Mirror of Eternal Blissfullessness
Dare you journey to a world so inescapably different to yours yet somehow unnervingly similar? A place where a Montar can choose to stand up for his rights by escaping to the everyday dangers of Interstellar Pub ownership… where a single Bashtak can lead his race astray by preying on their innermost fears… and where The Masters of The 2nd Floor of Space Ideology are as eager to repair Space and Time as they are to enjoy a wonderful slice of Chocolate Cake! If you’ll allow yourself to join me on this wondrous Tale, I promise to be gentle as we float along The Blue Lagoons of Tranjuri, traverse The Dunes of Yandel and stare straight into The Cliffs of Calamity… when you're ready we’ll head directly into The Wholeverse!
240 pages, Paperback
Published September 7, 2016
2 people are currently reading
515 people want to read
About the author
David James Hollamby
1 book14 followersAn Englishman living in Florida, David has always been known to have an answer for anything and everything… Just ask his wife! He loves letting his creativity flow but not nearly as much as he loves his beautiful wife & his two temperamental but lovable puppies
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 24, 2016
This book showcases an intriguing range of alien species, and a series of intertwining storylines that are well-handled and mesh neatly through the story. David James Hollamby has also created characters that have some definite appeal, in the run-away-from-home and break the cultural mould coming-of-age bracket.
Unfortunately, I have to be honest this point and note that The Carpenter's Moons is strictly a comedy sci-fi, and my sense of humour is sufficiently stunted as to make a nearly unhittable target. I therefore didn't get on very well with the overall style of the novel, to the point where I was seriously considering bailing on the read. However, I hate doing that, so I pushed on, and sure enough, the latter half of the book (possibly—apologies to the author—because I stopped page-hopping to try and read all of the footnotes) became a lot easier to read.
In more technical and less subjective areas, the nearly-constant use of humorous asides in the footnotes, many of sufficient length to end up split across the bottom of two pages, meant a great deal of flicking back and forth from the section I was trying to read, and consequently ended up being largely ignored after I got about a third of the way into the book. There were also enough homonyms and other typos in the text to keep grabbing my attention off the story, some to the point where I needed to pause and figure out which word that sounded like the one in the text actually fitted the context.
Having got to the end, I feel that, leaving aside the issue of whether or not any type of humour will ever be universally appealing to all readers, this story could potentially benefit enormously from a strong copy-edit. Some additional work on the characterisation might also help to move this book from simply the YA genre and add appeal across other ranges. I had the feeling, reading it, that there was a lot of potential in the book, but either because of my issues with the style, or something else, it just wasn’t quite living up to it.
Reviewed for By Rite of Word.
Unfortunately, I have to be honest this point and note that The Carpenter's Moons is strictly a comedy sci-fi, and my sense of humour is sufficiently stunted as to make a nearly unhittable target. I therefore didn't get on very well with the overall style of the novel, to the point where I was seriously considering bailing on the read. However, I hate doing that, so I pushed on, and sure enough, the latter half of the book (possibly—apologies to the author—because I stopped page-hopping to try and read all of the footnotes) became a lot easier to read.
In more technical and less subjective areas, the nearly-constant use of humorous asides in the footnotes, many of sufficient length to end up split across the bottom of two pages, meant a great deal of flicking back and forth from the section I was trying to read, and consequently ended up being largely ignored after I got about a third of the way into the book. There were also enough homonyms and other typos in the text to keep grabbing my attention off the story, some to the point where I needed to pause and figure out which word that sounded like the one in the text actually fitted the context.
Having got to the end, I feel that, leaving aside the issue of whether or not any type of humour will ever be universally appealing to all readers, this story could potentially benefit enormously from a strong copy-edit. Some additional work on the characterisation might also help to move this book from simply the YA genre and add appeal across other ranges. I had the feeling, reading it, that there was a lot of potential in the book, but either because of my issues with the style, or something else, it just wasn’t quite living up to it.
Reviewed for By Rite of Word.
February 5, 2022
The journey this book takes you on, is truly one-of-a-kind. As a typical reader of high fantasy YA, I enjoyed the unique voice the author contributed to this book. I felt like I was a reading a book, much like The Princess Bride, but in a world filled with surprises. This book can be read quickly, but I suggest taking the time to read the little footnotes provided throughout the book. You can tell the author enjoyed this aspect of writing, and it was well worth it.
September 27, 2016
As soon as I picked up this book I loved it. The Author takes you on a journey from your sofa to an amazing and intriguing new world. The description used and comedy remarks make this something really special. Would love to see this on the big screen and hope the Author writes a sequel ! Best read in a long time !!
November 13, 2016
I really enjoyed reading this book and going to this new world. I enjoyed the funny footnotes.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews